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 Also known as the
“little Kyoto of Tohoku,” Kakunodate is one of the Tohoku region's most
famous spots to see the cherry blossoms.
Around one million people visit Kakunodate's sakura matsuri or the
cherry blossom festival each year. The blossoms are usually at their
best and fullest bloom during the Golden Week in late April and early
May.
During the Edo Period from the years of 1603 to 1868, several weeping
cherry trees from distant Kyoto were brought to and transplanted at
Kakunodate, where local samurai families tried to outperform each other
in cultivating the most beautiful trees in their gardens. Their efforts
have certainly paid off and made the district into one of Japan’s most
beautiful places to visit.
Today, the sight of the many weeping cherry trees locally known as
shidare zakura, can be enjoyed in the former samurai district.
 In addition, several hundreds of somei yoshino cherry trees were later
planted along Hinokinai River, which runs through Kakunodate, providing
a great surrounding environment and excellent ambience for hanami
picnics and viewing parties.
The cherry blossom or sakura is Japan's unofficial national flower. It
has been celebrated for many centuries and takes a very prominent
position in Japanese culture.
There are many dozens of different cherry tree varieties in Japan, most
of which bloom for just a couple of days in spring. The Japanese usually
celebrate that time of the year by holding hanami (cherry blossom
viewing) parties under the blooming trees.
In addition to the beauty of the cherry blossoms, Kakunodate also offers
one of Japan's most beautifully preserved former samurai districts. Most
of Kakunodate's samurai houses, six of which are open to the public,
stand behind wooden fences and gates along a central avenue which is
lined by tall oak and weeping cherry trees.
Among the most interesting mansions open to the public are the Ishiguro
Samurai House, the former residence of Kakunodate's highest ranked
family, and the Aoyagi Samurai House, which exhibits arms, antiques and
other family treasures.
Despite its extraordinary green concrete exterior, the Hirafuku Memorial
Art Museum at the top end of the street, houses a small but fairly
decent collection of traditional Japanese art. The Denshokan on the
southern part of town, occupies a more attractive red-brick building.
This museum of Satake-clan treasures also doubles as a training school
for kaba-zaiku , the local craft in which boxes, tables and tea caddies
are coated with a thin veneer of cherry bark. Developed in the late
eighteenth century to supplement the income of impoverished samurai ,
kaba-zaiku is now Kakunodate's trademark souvenir. If you prefer your
bark still on the trees, turn right outside the Denshokan, where there's
a two-kilometre tunnel of cherries along the Hinokinai-gawa embankment.
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